San Jose: Three defendants plead no contest in abuse case

Three members of a family who ran a filthy, unlicensed group home overrun with dogs in an upscale San Jose neighborhood pleaded no contest Tuesday to abusing 13 mentally ill men and women.

The pleas spare the dependent adults and their families from having to testify about the bizarre, nightmarish scene at the home in the upscale Evergreen Valley neighborhood, where they lived in abject squalor with 25 dogs. Some of the more lucid victims told investigators that their caretakers beat them regularly, fed them poorly, pilfered their Social Security and disability benefits, and sometimes withheld medication for schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses.

"Many in the county have been in disbelief that disabled adults could be treated in such a cruel and callous way," said prosecutor Charles Huang. "Today's admission of criminal guilt should confirm this abuse was a sad reality."

Huang urged anyone with information about other unlicensed group homes where residents are being mistreated to report the abuse to the DA's office.

Under the plea deal, 63-year-old matriarch Jennifer Ngo and her 25-year-old son Charles Nguyen face a maximum of four years each in state prison. Ngo pleaded to 16 felony counts of adult-dependent abuse and three misdemeanor counts, including one count of resisting arrest and two of animal neglect.

Nguyen pleaded to six counts of abuse and the same three misdemeanors.

Advertisement

The family patriarch, George Dac Nguyen, 72, suffered a burst aorta while in jail and died awaiting a transfer to the hospital.

The third deal was with one of the family's adult daughters, Margarete Ngo, who pleaded to one felony count of abuse and the three misdemeanors. She was sentenced to time served.

All three were released Tuesday. Ngo and Nguyen are set to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Phil Pennypacker on Jan. 29.